Maren (An Interview)

So a couple months ago, Maren of the blog Cyangirrl and I began talking! She is so interesting and lovely that the two of us set up an interview type thing for you guys.
-What made you start your tumblr blog? 
Actually a couple years ago my buddy Noelle was talking about it and she was like you gotta make a tumblr Maren it’s so fun and I was like I don’t know maaaaan but I finally did make one and it was SO CONFUSING at first and my blog was just Beck, weird kitsch and adventure time screenshots.
-Do you see a tumblr blog to be any different from any other blog?
I think it’s way more like spur of the moment or impulsive I guess if that makes any sense like I’m tried getting into blogging on wordpress or blogspot but I just end up overthinking everything I say way too much like if I have some sort of feminist statement to make it’s usually been brought on by something that I hear or that I notice and I’m frustrated by. What I do is very I guess reactionary so I try to get my thoughts out in the most pure and raw form as soon as soon as I can articulate them. tumblr is a good fit for me because I can get my thoughts out in a quick way without worrying about forming paragraphs or not using textspeak type language because of the casual nature of the website. I have so much respect for feminist scholars that put out these beautiful statements with really precise and to the point language but that’s not what I do. I don’t ever really want my tone to be me lecturing someone I feel like my form of education is to put thoughts out in a way more like the reader and myself are sharing a dialogue hence my constant use of run on sentences and 4 instead of for 2 instead of two etc etc I want it to feel natural like that’s the way I actually talk.
-How did you decide that you wanted to dye your hair colors that are so “out there”?
This is actually a really uninteresting explanation. I was 13 and I told my mom I want pink hair and her response was alright cool I’ll get the dye like there was no sort of edgy teen rebellion involved it was just what I felt was just the natural progression of things like oh I’m 13 now I want pretty colors in my hair.
-Do you have an inspiration for your style?
I am and have been inspired by so many people and things throughout the years so I am going to say just like my top few of the last couple weeks like I’ve always consistently been inspired by weird kitschy culture but currently I’m kind of exploring the cyber goth club kid type culture of the late 90’s and kind of taking the fashion like meshy tights, velvety crop tops and platform shoes and using a more comfy punk-ish aesthetic like I really value fashion that seems wild and other worldly but also a sort of tangibility like people can look at it and say I can look like that I can do that so people like Karen o and divine are favorites because they can wear something that’s just so majestic and space age but at the same time it looks very human and sincere like it wasn’t a look born from the mind of some out of touch record exec and prodded at and perfected until it is completely unattainable to the average person. Some other inspirations would definitely be ocean creatures and anything that was worn by Selena Quintanilla.


I really love Maren's style and blog for it is just so her. As I said, Maren is seriously so lovely and you should really check out her blog here
-Ann

Friday Extra: The Moon's Best Dun

If I were to make a full out list of intelligent young you tubers, Steinunn from the channel, The Moon's Best Dun, would have to be the first person I would add. This fourteen year old girl also known as "The Girl Who Never Sleeps" is not only extremely insightful but just so creative and different than about any other person I have seen on YouTube. On top of it all, Steinunn is an extremely lovely person and was just so sweet to let me waste her time and ask her a couple questions! 

-What made you start a YouTube channel?
There are loads of reasons why I originally started my youtube channel, I've always been into filming and generally sharing stories and my own opinions, youtube is a great platform to combine these things. Another reason is that I have been watching youtubers for quite a while, I think I came across Charlie McDonnel when I was 10 or 11 years old and completely fell in love with the world of vloggers.
Charlie Mcdonnell got me into vloggers too! It was also around the same age as me that you were opened up to the world of vloggers ;) 

- I have "Blogger Buddies" being a blogger myself. Do you have any Youtuber friends that you have met through Youtube?
Over the time I've been on youtube I have met some of the most amazing people I have talked to. I don't call my youtube friends "youtube" friends anymore because they are just as close to me as my friends from school. Most day's I come home and talk to other youtubers, have a quick skype or a little chat on facebook. Being able to meet people from around the world has really changed my life and I couldn't be more happy about the things youtube has given me.

-What vloggers would you say you look up to?
To name all the vloggers I look up to would take ages considerating there are so many amazing content creators out there. One of my favorites at the moment is Jackvslife. He manages to combine talking ad film in such a great way. Other people you should defenetly check out are people like Adam Borman (thatoctagon), grimbleism, Louis Cole (FunForLouis), Ollie (olliem97) and especially LordLouielou. There are so many more people that I could name but theses are people I have been enjoying a lot lately!

-This is extremely irrelevant to the subject of you tubing, but I love your haircut. What made you want to cut your hair in such an edgy way?
Well  I really don't know, I guess I wanted a change and I didn't want to fit the steriotype of a 13 year old girl with long blonde hair. i've always had quite short hair, it's just  thing I like. When I first cut my hair most people liked it but there were a few times I got teased for it so at a point of time I really regretted it but I think I'm happy I did it. We all need to realize people aren't all the same, you don't know why their hair is short and you don't know why are how they are. Let's just all embrace the different.

-What would you say your goals with your channel are?

At first, when I started my youtube channel I wished I would become a "big" youtuber. Not anymore, right now I'm enjoying youtube as it is, it's always great to gain subscribers but that's not the most important thing, I stay on youtube because it's my hobby and my friends are there. So my goals are to improve my videos and meet more people. 

Your goals for your YouTube channel are a lot similar to when I started How Fitting. I wanted to be the biggest blogger possible but now I'm pretty happy here being a mildly popular online magazine.

-What opportunities have you had since you started your channel?

I've had the opportunity to meet people around the world, talk, collab and make friends. I have had the chance to make video's that hundreds of  people will see and even though sometimes i feel like that number is small, if I would try to fit every single one of my subscribers into my house, it would be bloody hard!

-So you are a part of the collab channel, The Fabulous Few, how did you decide you wanted to be a part of a collab? Is it harder having to make videos for your own channel and for The Fabulous Few?
yes, yes I am indeed. It hasn't been going as well as we wished because everyone has been quite busy but we plan on getting it on track again soon, It's harder to make 2 videos than one, obviously. but I think it's good for me to get the practice.

-As you probably know, about every Youtuber has been shipped with at least one person. Have you ever been shipped?

I have indeed! i've been shipped with my best friend stan (stanearls on youtube) but it's all for fun :)

-If you watch the channel Crabstickz, you would have heard of when Chris Kendall said he was "quitting YouTube". In the video, he described how fake some Youtubers were. What do you think of that video?

I absolutely love that video, with youtube there follows stress and attitude. I think almost no youtuber really acts how they are in real life and It's very easy to understand that. You choose to show your best side and the one you want people to see! I would actually sometimes consider myself a totally different person online but that's because I am not as confident around the people I know in school and I don't feel as accepted there. 

Big thanks to Steinunn for letting me ask her a couple questions!

-Ann

An Interview With Eilish Gilligan

When I checked the How Fitting email inbox at the beginning of the week, I was expecting the usual mail from either Emma or Fiona but to my surprise, I found an email from the ever so lovely Eilish Gilligan talking about her band Frida. To make a long story short, I fell in love with the band, asked Eilish if possibly she could answer some questions for me and I fangirled the entire time. Before I show you lovelies our conversation, I would just like to mention how lovely Elish was the entire time and how I cannot thank her enough for doing this for me. You rock Eilish.
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Who is your musical inspiration?

Our musical inspirations range from all the beautiful goddesses of music such as Kate Bush, Bjork, Joni Mitchell, Florence Welch...to the soul kings, such as Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. We like to describe our genre as a big hot bubbling melting pot of indie pop and funk 'n' soul. 
Have you ever had to deal with hate towards yourself or your music? If so, how has it impacted you?

Never directly...although that's a hard question. People often comment on my clothing but in fairness I do dress pretty bizarrely, and usually people are really cool and open to my silly outfits. I guess you'll always come across 'haterz' in your life, but you just have to brush it off and keep on doing what you know you do best.Does your music have some sort of message or story?

All of our songs generally address a specific story or emotion, or both. I find it relatively easy to write about something I have experienced myself - when you have actually been sleeping outside some one's house in your car, or sitting on the train trying to hide the fact that you're crying after just breaking up with your boyfriend, that real-experience, real-emotion is easily recognised by the listener as real, rather than contrived. 

Who do you think is your demographic?

Umm... I guess I like to think that we appeal to teenage kids, probably with blogs, like the kids that like to stay inside and eat pizza and think about their feelings for most of the day. 

What is your favorite quote in music? Why?

It's really simple, but one time Joni Mitchell said: 'I love to dance.' I don't really know why I love that so much...I think maybe it's because she wrote so many beautifully heartbreaking, fragile, tragic songs in her lifetime - and to say that she likes to dance just goes to show that she understands the beauty of dancing for the sake of dancing and how wonderful it can be. Or maybe I just like it because I love to dance too (even though I'm not very good). 

When you're not making music, what are you up to?

It's such a lame answer but I'm usually listening to music or thinking about making music etc. For most people they have, like, a job, and then a hobby...for me my job is also my hobby and it's really really awesome. I like to read and do internet stuff too - I have a blog which I update on a pretty regular basiseilish-gilligan.blogspot.comWhy did you choose How Fitting to email?

I love love love Rookie Mag and you guys have that vibe - as soon as I saw your page of contributors (all chicks) I couldn't resist!
What do you hope to see in your band's future?

Success and happiness. 

Frida is an amazing band that I could not recommend more! I give a huge good luck to Eilish and the rest of Frida for success in their future. 

-Ann
http://www.triplejunearthed.com/Frida
http://www.facebook.com/fridamelbourne
http://fridamelbourne.bandcamp.com